"This is another "What's the Matter With Kansas" scenario, the Thomas Frank book which posits that many moderate people have been swept up in the fever of the far-right extremist agenda, and are being led, like sheep, to act and vote in a way that is actually against their own self-interest."

you mean like those moderates who were fed Obama's lies and led to vote for someone with a far-left extremist agenda? Obama ran as a "moderate". Remember when Obama pledged to be a fiscally tough as the most conservative Republicans? "We cannot give a blank check to Washington with no oversight and accountability, when no oversight and accountability is what got us into this mess in the first place"

saguni, you are 100% correct about the infant mortality rate in the US.

but it also plays into another big misleading statistic that government run healthcare advocates like to tout as a need for government takeover of healthcare--life expectancy. Even Michael Bloomberg, obviously a very intelligent person, was on Meet the Press this morning using the misleading statistic that Western European countries spend less on healthcare but have longer life expectancies.

When you include all live births in your statistics, it will artificially lower overall life expectancy. Add in to that a higher murder rate for young adults, and you get that life expectancy isn't lower here because of lower quality healthcare.

The US has the best cancer survival statistics. Far and away above those of Western Europe. There is a reason for that--and it isn't because our system is worse.

as for these meetings, I think the root of the raucous comes from the initial town hall meetings where Democratic lawmakers were totally dismissive of the concerns of individuals. Instead of addressing the concerns, they were flippant. That set the stage for the expectation (right or wrong) that these meetings are nothing more than a Democratic front for trying to force something on the American people that the polls show the majority of Americans clearly don't want.

As for the Chavez comments above, he might have been democratically elected at first, but he has since used strong arm tactics to suppress all opposition and impose more and more socialism. If you like Chavez, I suggest you pack up and move elsewhere, because the vast majority of Americans will not ever allow such a government to survive here.

"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

I would expect a little more professionalism from you Mr. Baker. The term "teabagger" is not appropriate for use in this discussion. If you need to know why, I suggest you look up the term "tea bagging"